Welcome to this special edition of the C&G which is dedicated to THE GOODIES STILL RULE OK tour featuring Tim, Graeme and a virtual Bill. Rather like the GPO's reply to Bill's letter requesting permission to set up Radio Goodies, this tour has been all over the countryside (and yes, it's even been to Edinburgh!) as is evident from the tour schedule below.

Show Listing: http://www.theanvil.org.uk/ (There isn't a direct link to the show - find it by selecting "what's on" at the top of the page, then "Full Season" from the pull down menu. On the next page click "March 2007" in the "view month" menu at the left side of the page.

More exciting than getting your wig-spotters badge! If you've seen the Goodies recently (and let's face it, who in the U.K. hasn't!), e-mail <clarion@goodiesruleok.com>with the details. Here's where we've Spotted!!! The Goodies as part of the publicity for "The Goodies Still Rule OK" tour:

Overlooked by the BBC and overshadowed by the Pythons, the Goodies' comic legacy has been unjustifiably neglected. But, they tell Brian Logan, they're back to set the record straight

Thursday March 1, 2007

The Guardian

Icons of British comedy? We'd all say Morecambe and Wise, I'd guess. Dad's Army. Inevitably, Monty Python. But most of our lists would stretch into double figures before reaching the Goodies. The Goodies were prime-time mainstays for a whopping 12 years into the early 1980s, and have been paying the price ever since. The BBC has neither repeated their series nor released their DVDs themselves. The perception took hold that The Goodies was (in the barbed words of John Cleese, in a cameo appearance on the show) "a kids' programme". If the Pythons now tower over British comedy like a marauding giant kitten, the Goodies are a dead parrot.

The Python parallel is irresistible. The Goodies themselves make it, almost obsessively. As their stage show, which starts a national tour this month, makes clear, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor were friends, flatmates and Footlights colleagues of Cleese, Idle, et al. They performed in the same successful student revue, Cambridge Circus, which ended up on Broadway. Their members wrote for That Was the Week That Was and starred together in a BBC sketch show called Broaden Your Mind.

History could easily have panned out differently. "There's some Python stuff that any of us would have felt comfortable doing," says Oddie. "And some of the Python people would have felt comfortable doing Goodies stuff." According to Brooke-Taylor (who co-scripted the Four Yorkshiremen sketch subsequently performed live by the Pythons), the formation of the two troupes "was about who was available at the right moment. It could have gone a lot of different ways".

Really? The Pythons in dungarees, singing Funky Gibbon on Top of the Pops? The Goodies' Life of Brian? From a distance, their acts seem to inhabit distant universes. Monty Python were the clever-clever literary wits whereas, in Oddie's words, "we were intelligent, but accessible". The Goodies' heroes were Buster Keaton and Tom & Jerry. Their half-sketch show, half-sitcom format, in which the trio play an agency of three bicycling blokes for hire to do "anything, anytime", are like Warner Bros cartoons made flesh. Silly, slapstick and sped-up, the best episodes are freewheeling streams-of-nonsense in which TV conventions are upended, rugs are pulled, and every silent-movie gag in history is lovingly re-created.

Australia realises this. There, the Goodies' anti-establishment irreverence is embraced, says Brooke-Taylor, and the show is broadcast daily. It was Australia that enticed the trio back together for a theatre tour, for which 25,000 tickets sold out in one day. The UK tour of the same show (minus Oddie, who participates via video inserts) is Australian-produced. It's a nostalgic, chatty affair, which screens classic clips, including a movie- pastiche sequence from 1975 that is giddy with its own inventiveness. "Every night onstage," says Brooke-Taylor, "I think, 'How the hell did we do that?'" And a fabulously cheeky broadside against self-appointed 1970s censor Mary Whitehouse, featuring a "gender education" film called How to Make Babies By Doing Dirty Things.

That's what we tend to forget about the Goodies. They weren't silly in a vacuum. They were silly about topical issues. That may be one reason they've dated less well than the Pythons. Another is suggested by one particular episode, entitled South Africa. Ostensibly, this episode attacks apartheid (the Goodies visit South Africa, where the diminutive Oddie is persecuted under the "apart-height" regime), and the Goodies are proud of having broadcast it. But its racial stereotyping and casual use of the word "nig-nog" make it all but unwatchable today.

The trio have admitted to being "slightly embarrassed" by such scenes. "But there were only one or two of them," says Garden - who himself blacked up for the famous Ecky-Thump episode that caused a 50-year-old bricklayer to laugh himself to death. The trio are loath to think that their output has been freeze-dried because of the odd racial (and homophobic) stereotype. After all, the Pythons blacked up, and The Black and White Minstrel Show was one of the most popular broadcasts of the mid-1970s. "We did a minstrel spoof ourselves," says Oddie, "in which Martin Luther King says, 'I have a dream about a world where minstrels will be all sorts of colours, not just black and white.' If someone thinks that's un-PC, then they really are stupid."

Oddie is the most voluble on this subject, as indeed he is on all subjects. He domineers the conversation; Brooke-Taylor pitches in; Garden keeps his counsel. Brooke-Taylor has a stock line about Oddie's non-participation in the stage show - he likes the pre-recorded video Oddie, he says, because it means "we can switch Bill off". This may be a true word spoken in jest.

Reinvented as a wildlife broadcaster, Oddie was recently voted the fourth most trusted person in Britain. But it's not clear that he and his fellow Goodies have always held one another in high esteem. Witness Oddie's sleeve-notes for a CD of the songs he wrote for the series: "I would like to thank the other two Goodies, but I really can't. It would have been so much easier without them."

But today, their camaraderie seems authentic. Brooke-Taylor professes fondness for the Goodies' musical career, even if Garden's gritted-teeth tribute - "I loved every second of it" - isn't even meant to sound convincing. The Goodies were the fifth biggest-grossing pop act of 1975 - or, according to Brooke-Taylor, "the Spice Girls of the 70s". During the same period, they won a Sun award for light entertainment ahead of Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. They bagged two second-place Silver Roses of Montreux, one of which they sprayed gold on their TV show. "We were robbed," says Oddie now. "I hope you appreciate," says Brooke-Taylor, "that 35 years later we're not remotely bitter!"

Bitter is too strong a word. But they are disappointed at the BBC's disdain, and at the disparity between the Pythons' reputation and their own. Again, Oddie is nearly slanderous on the subject. "Python hoiked themselves up to a different level because of their American connection," he says. "They were financed by Victor Lowndes from Playboy magazine. This is their seedy past." Python's fame is down to their assiduous schmoozing. "I remember going to lunch with Eric [Idle] in the 70s. He said, 'Come over, I've got some friends round,' and it was Paul Simon and Mick Jagger. And John [Cleese] is very comfortable with meeting important people. If he hasn't got Steve Martin round for supper, it's a wasted evening."

The Goodies' brush with Hollywood came when Steven Spielberg, believe it or not, suggested a collaboration. So what went wrong? "I think John and Eric got together and dissuaded him," deadpans Garden. "So he made The Goonies instead." Oddie's explanation is that, unlike the Pythons, "we are a bit low-class. We are not top-of-the-league show people. None of us are natural members of the Groucho club. We do not take drugs or associate with people who do. And half of the Pythons," he goes on, rising in volume, "married big, blonde Americans. None of us married a big, blonde American." Or at least, "not yet", adds Brooke-Taylor.

Brooke-Taylor may not share Oddie's class resentment, but he will agree that "a very big plus for Python was that the viewers' parents didn't like them. Whereas the whole family liked us." Python was cool in a way that a live-action Tom & Jerry could never be. "I'm willing to bet," says Oddie, "that most heads of BBC2 down the years were Python fans who regarded The Goodies as a kids' programme. And they were not going to show us because they were too fucking hip."

I think the Goodies are justified in feeling unfairly rejected. That may indeed be because we live in a culture that prizes the verbal above the visual, the cerebral above the popular. It may also be because the Goodies (unlike Python or Fawlty Towers) overstayed their welcome. In 1982, they took their final series to LWT, where one episode discussed the fact that they were too clapped-out to be Goodies any more.

But now, a little belated recognition is coming their way. A new generation of comics hail them as major influences - the League of Gentlemen and Mike (Austin Powers) Myers are fans, The Mighty Boosh are clearly in their debt, and Little Britain's David Walliams cites seeing the Goodies chased by Dougal from the Magic Roundabout as his pre-eminent comic memory.

The Goodies are gratified by this, but they've had too many false new dawns in the last quarter century to take talk of a revival seriously. "What I find all the time," says Brooke-Taylor, "is that we're driven into this position of having to justify The Goodies." If it were shown, he wouldn't have to. It could speak for, or against, itself. "Because we don't want to oversell it," he says. "But we are very proud of it. And it's so frustrating that it's not seen".

Since I'm not sure how well that link is going to work a cut & paste of the

article is provided below.

THREE OF A KIND

08:00 - 14 March 2007

Tim Brooke-Taylor throws his head back and laughs long and loud: "The only Goodies we've seen recently are the ones on Celebrity Big Brother!" All that, however, is about to change. Following on from a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival last summer, an extremely popular comeback last year on BBC2 with The Return of the Goodies and two sold-out tours of Australia, the much-loved comedians will be appearing at a the Mercury Theatre, Colchester this Saturday. As the title of their new show puts it, The Goodies Still Rule OK!

As they prepare to take their show on the road this spring, Tim and his long-term comedy partner Graeme Garden are sitting in capacious armchairs in the bar of a central London hotel drinking cappuccinos. As funny off stage as they are on it, the pair make for highly entertaining company.

The Goodies Still Rule OK! is a celebration of one of the nation's favourite TV comedy shows of the 1970s. The television series, immensely popular with all ages, started in 1970 and ran for 74 episodes until the team called it a day in 1981.

The show centred on a trio of trouble-shooters - the loveable Bill Oddie was the third member. They rode around on an iconic three-seater bicycle (or trandem) and attempted to solve problems "anytime, anywhere".

Featuring a highly catchy theme tune and songs by Bill, the series developed into a satirical, surreal festival of verbal and visual humour, replete with special effects, explosions, outsized props, camera tricks and slapstick worthy of the silent movie greats. Oh yes, and a giant kitten.

The Goodies, who also had a number of hit singles, including The Funky Gibbon and The Inbetweenies, twice won the Montreux Silver Rose. In addition, they made guest-star appearances on every major British TV show, including the now-legendary first Amnesty benefit, A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick.

In the Goodies' live show, Tim and Graeme share with us their favourite sketches and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Melding reminiscences with ridiculousness, they recall the "naughty bits" banned by Australian TV (which screened the show religiously at 6pm every evening for decades); the sketches from the student revue that took the troupe to Broadway; and Tim's famed Union Jack waistcoat. The show also features the odd explosion (insurance pending).

Due to filming commitments, Bill (who has established himself as BBC2's resident wildlife expert with programmes such as Bill Oddie Goes Wild and Springwatch) will beam his performance in to the venues via the wonders of digital technology.

The crowd has certainly gone wild wherever the team have performed The Goodies Still Rule OK! "When we toured Australia," recollects Graeme, who is dressed in a brown corduroy jacket and purple shirt, "the audiences were everything that old men like us could wish for - young, bright and grateful!

"Because the TV show went out every night at 6pm, several generations grew up with us."

Tim, who since 1971 has starred alongside Graeme in the impossibly popular R4 "antidote to panel games", I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, chimes in that, "pompously, you could say that like The Simpsons, The Goodies works on two levels. It appeals simultaneously to both adults and children.

"What particularly delighted us was how affectionate people were. We had these tough Outback guys coming up and saying, 'thank you for providing the sole bright spots in an otherwise terrible childhood'. Those moments brought a lump to the throat.

"But the nicest thing was the number of gorgeous women of 30 appearing at the stage door afterwards and asking, 'can I have I hug?' We had to say, 'careful with these old bones!' They were so enthusiastic, it gave us the push we needed to perform the show here."

When they did, the response was equally positive. "The reaction in Edinburgh was better than we dared hope," remembers Tim, 66, who wrote for The Two Ronnies and Marty Feldman. "What was so encouraging was that the audience covered all ages."

The Goodies are appealingly modest when asked about why they continue to be so popular. "People must have long memories," ventures Graeme, 64.

"Or very bad memories," adds Tim, quick as a flash. He goes on in a more serious vein. "Our humour has endured because it's universal. When we were writing, we were always thinking, 'what would make us laugh?' That was always our yardstick."

Graeme, a qualified doctor, who has written for Doctor in the House, Bremner, Bird and Fortune and Smith and Jones, chips in that, "we also aimed to make the comedy accessible. We tried to put in a joke every couple of lines."

Tim, who is done up in a smart blue shirt and corduroy trousers, continues that the three Goodies, who met at the Cambridge Footlights in the early 1960s, each stood for different, contradictory traits.

"Because I've got a double-barrelled name, I was the toff. Because he was a qualified doctor, Graeme was the eccentric boffin. And because he was a bloody revolutionary, Bill was the bloody revolutionary. Nothing's changed, except Graeme and myself!"

The pair, who remain very close to Bill ("we're seeing him for lunch in an hour," Graeme reveals), enjoy a great chemistry. That also contributes to the show's appeal. "We know each other almost too well, so in any conversation we have a ready-made shorthand," smiles Tim, who studied law at Cambridge and used to share notes with his great friend John Cleese.

Graeme, who has written a new R4 comedy entitled About a Dog and starring Alan Davies, pitches in that, "the great thing is that we still make each other laugh. I'm very happy to watch Tim on stage. Except when the audience are laughing at him and not me, then, of course, I curse him!"

There is clearly a genuine buzz between the pair when they perform together. They relish the live experience. "I love audiences," beams Tim.

"It's like we're all having a great time together." And that is exactly the sensation experienced by audiences at The Goodies Still Rule OK!

As they head off to meet Bill for lunch, I ask Tim and Graeme whether the tour will be seriously rock'n'roll. Will they have a budget for painting the town red every night? "No," Tim deadpans, "we'll spend any money we have on a caring nurse and a nice cup of Horlicks!"

The Goodies are playing at the Mercury Theatre for one night only on Saturday March 17; For booking information on the tour, go to www.goodiesruleok.com

TELEVISION comedy was never the same after they stormed the scene with their anarchic 1970s show.

Their surreal sketches and manic individual performances brought them international acclaim and personal fortune.

Now the Goodies are back, with a 24-night tour that arrives in Windsor on Sunday night.

Tim Brooke-Taylor, one of the Goodies and a long-term Cookham resident, said performing in front of a home crowd will be a nerve-wracking experience.

He said: "So many people have said to me that they are coming to see me that I am slightly nervous. They are all very loyal and they will all be buying tickets."

The tour comes to Britain on the back of two sold-out trips to Australia in 2005 and rave Edinburgh Festival reviews last year.

Brooke-Taylor said: "It is thanks to Australia that we are doing anything at all.

"Because they had faith in it, we sold out in huge theatres. The difference is, of course that, they have gone on showing the programme on television. "Although I know we've got a good show, we are pitching it to a different audience here, and we're having to say 'look, we think this is good'."

Brooke-Taylor said the tour, which goes on the road without founding member Bill Oddie, will be a celebration of the original television show – which often included routines filmed in Maidenhead.

Alongside Graeme Garden, he will be performing a selection of new sketches interspersed with clips from the original TV series.

The comic, who has lived in Cookham since 1983 and is president of the local branch of Relate, said today's comedians leave him feeling optimistic about

the future of British comedy. He said: "I'm very lucky because, on my radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, I've been able to ask people I like to join me. "They are people like Stephen Fry and Ross Noble, and you can tell they are people I admire because they end up on my team."

The Goodies Still Rule OK! comes to the Theatre Royal in Windsor on Sunday and to the Wycombe Swan on Saturday, March 24.

Seventies icons The Goodies are bringing their much publicised comeback tour The Goodies Still Rule OK! to Lincoln.

The comedy trio of Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie are one of the most memorable acts of the 70s with their show running on BBC 2 from 1970 to 1982.

Now in their 60s Tim and Graeme are touring as a duo following a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival last summer and a BBC 2 comeback with The Return Of The Goodies.

And there will be footage beamed into the venues of their good friend Bill who is currently filming having established himself as BBC2's resident wildlife expert with programmes such as Bill Oddie Goes Wild and Springwatch.

The 70s show saw the characters as a trio of trouble-shooters riding around on their three-seater bicycle or trandem and attempting to solve problems 'anytime, anywhere'.

Graduates of Cambridge University, the trio met at the Cambridge Footlights in the early 60s along with their long time friend John Cleese.

In The Goodies Still Rule OK, Tim and Graeme share with us their favourite sketches and behind-the-scenes anecdotes including material from the student revue they took to Broadway - and Tim's famed Union Jack waistcoat.

But when asked about their new-found popularity in the 21st century, Graeme and Tim are modest.

"People must have long memories," says Graeme.

"Or very bad memories," adds Tim.

"But seriously we think the reason our humour has endured is because it's universal.

"When we were writing, we were always thinking, 'what would make us laugh?'

"I think it's important that we're all quite different characters so we complement each other rather than antagonise each other.

"I'm a great believer in teamwork and I'm very proud of the fact we've stuck together for all these years."

It has been 25 years since The Goodies ended their ten-year run as staples of British television.

And since there have been few repeat showings of their Seventies TV comedy classic.

So how come they're back now with a new theatre tour?

"It's all down to a request from Australia," says Graeme Garden.

"The Goodies has been extensively repeated out there, so the next generation also grew up with it.

When they came to be organising the Big Laugh Festival, they wanted some TV comedians and we were, to them, an obvious choice."

This led to Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor reuniting for the trip to Oz and it was so well-received that it was thought that the UK may appreciate the show.

After a successful stint at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer, the trio decided to take the show on the road.

"It's a sort of introduction to The Goodies for some and for others a reminder," says Garden.

"We have clips of the show and we perform some stuff going back to our student days and some of our radio scripts".

Bill Oddie, however, will not be appearing in person (due to other "commitments") only on the big screen, billed as a "digital Bill".

Says Garden with a laugh: "The good thing is we can turn it off!"

The relationships between the three men have changed but never soured, he says.

"I used to spend more time with Bill. We'd be writing and Tim would be off doing a sit-com of something, but these days Tim and I spend more time together as we do a lot of radio work while Bill is never in the same place for more than a few days at a time."

He adds: "When two of us are together, we always bad-mouth the other."

The Goodies have been referenced by the likes of The League of Gentlemen, The Mighty Boosh and Mike Myers as a big influence.

Odd then that there have been few repeats of the show over the years.

"It's disappointing that it's never been shown again, but the fans still seem very affectionate towards us despite that. Many of the fans show the DVDs to their children, so we are reaching another generation now."

The nature of the show with pratfalls and slapstick and the absence of any crudeness made The Goodies quite child-friendly, often airing in the early evening. Hidden beneath the silliness though were often serious and satirical messages.

"The plots we had were often satirical. We would try to send up whatever was in the news at the time, whether that was a big film like Close Encounters or some political news involving Margaret Thatcher.

"We even did one about apartheid once that the BBC were scared to show for a long time.

"So we often hid behind the pratfalls in delivering bigger messages."

The trio met at Cambridge University and were contemporaries of another British institution, the Monty Python team.

Garden even shared a flat with Eric Idle, who thanked the Goodies individually at the opening of Spamalot for getting him involved with comedy.

"We think he was trying to share the blame!" laughs Garden.

The Python team and The Goodies mingled freely in their student days and did various projects together before eventually forming two collectives. So why the split?

"It just worked out that way. We were all keen to break down the normal sketch format, but they decided to do it by abandoning traditional punch-lines while we made a single flowing 30-minute sketch per show and the group just gravitated one way or the other."

Not everyone has been impressed by the success of The Goodies, says Garden, namely his youngest son when he was a boy.

It's a good job he followed The Goodies with voice-over work on a children's favourite.

"When he was at school, he was embarrassed that his dad was one of The Goodies but he loved Bananaman, so it helped me out there." The show is on Sunday March 25.

"YOU'LL always be a Goodie to me, though," misty-eyed with nostalgia, I couldn't help telling Tim Brooke-Taylor when I spoke to him about his upcoming performance in Cheltenham.

Lucky for me, he told me: "I'm very proud of The Goodies." And just as jolly and genial as you'd imagine, he was glad to be asked about the comedy series which made him a household name.

Even after 20 years, everyone who saw The Goodies knows Tim Brooke-Taylor who cycled that three-seater bike into all kinds of crazy adventures with his pals Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden.

And everyone I told about this interview couldn't surpress a smile as they told me about their favourite Goodie moment, whether they were adults at the time fully appreciating the humour or a youngster who found the visual jokes and special effects stuck in their minds.

That was one of the endearing qualities of the show, says Tim, who likens its wide appeal to shows like The Simpsons which whole families could watch on different levels. He says: "It was made for adults but people tell me they were allowed to stay up and watch it!"

Uptight Tim, long-haired Bill and sensible Graeme in real life were Monty Python contemporaries - they were in the Cambridge University Footlights Revue Club with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.

It's one of those quirks of history which gave Tim a job elsewhere so he couldn't take up the invitation of joining the Python team - but things weren't quiet for him.

Reading his extra-long biographical blurb, there's not a lot in TV comedy he hasn't had a hand in. He started out performing in the West End with Cambridge Circus, the Footlights revue from his final year, and then toured New Zealand and Broadway, before another US tour with a stage version of That Was The Week That Was with David Frost, Bill Oddie and Willie Rushton. He came home in 1965 as a scriptwriter, then a regular TV performer in On The Braden Beat and also edited a Spike Milligan series and The Frost Programme.

This led to At Last The 1948 Show in which he co-starred with Marty Feldman, Cleese and Chapman and Aimi McDonald.

After creating I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, he and Graeme Garden made two series of Broaden Your Mind before, they got together with Bill Oddie and came up with something new and different format - The Goodies.

Tim explains: "It all came out of the same stable as Monty Python and the other shows." But it had a few differences. The difficulty in writing a sketch show, he says, is that each sketch has to be individual and have an ending. Monty Python got round that by having someone burst in to stop the proceedings but The Goodies went down a different path. It introduced regular characters and worked the sketches around them.

"It was really a series of sketches blended together to make a story," says Tim. That format, combined with the newest visual effects, gave the show a more modern feel and an appeal which made it so popular Steven Spielberg even expressed an interest in making The Goodies The Movie! And remember the chart hits? Did you strut your stuff to The Funky Gibbon?

The Goodies was so far ahead of its time, however, it seems the BBC is waiting for some even more futuristic date on which to repeat it.

Despite some shows being released on video, the tapes have been gathering dust on shelves while other series are constantly shown - something which puzzles the team. In Australia and New Zealand, it's still shown and Tim recently attended a Melbourne Goodies Convention. He says: "In the 1970s we didn't have video recorders so I hadn't seen the programmes myself for years. They all knew the lines better than me!"

"The fans were all intelligent young people in their 20s and that seems to be what the BBC wants to aim for," said Tim. "We simply can't get to the bottom of it."

Lobby the Beeb then, because Tim also says of a future Goodies reunion: "We always thought we would do some more but we couldn't do that at the moment.

"The old series would have to be shown again to gauge reaction to it and how a new one would be received."

If you think life's been quiet for Tim since those days, you'd be very wrong.

He's enjoyed stage success in Australia and the West End, performed straight TV roles, hosted panel games and chat shows and starred in the sitcom Me and My Girl with Richard O'Sullivan as well as in plenty more series, plays and tours, culminating in a short but intimate appearance in another classic - One Foot in the Grave.

He was Victor Meldrew's new neighbour in a Christmas special in which he ended up in bed with the great crosspatch.

"They interviewed lots of people and then I was chosen but ended up just being in it for one episode before it finished - but it was a particularly good episode to be in!" he says. And of course, he's squeezed in almost 30 years on the Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, written three books, served as rector of St Andrew's University and was a director of Derby County Football Club. He also married Christine and has two sons, Ben and Edward. Now he's just landed a cushy number touring golf courses for the Discovery Channel.

Not bad for a boy who started his education with an expulsion at the age of five from a school in his home county of Derbyshire. "I was one of only two boys in a school of girls and we caused havoc," he says. He had to be in the Brownies with them and was too rowdy in the meetings so was "asked to leave".

He chuckled thinking about it - "There aren't many men who can claim they were in the Brownies!"

Now it's back to his theatrical roots in Cheltenham - Bedside Manners by Derek Benfield which runs through next week and Tim describes as "a very clever play and very funny".

He plays an inexperienced manager of a seedy hotel who has to try to cope with all sorts of madcap secret assignations.

He doesn't know the area very well, although his father was at school in Cheltenham and his mother, a Lacrosse international, was a games mistress there too.

But he said: "One of the nice things about touring is you go to all those places you keep meaning to go to!"

Expect to see Tim Brooke-Taylor nosing round the Cotswolds while Bedside Manners runs at The Everyman Theatre from next Monday, to September 15.

THE Goodies were a massive BBC TV comedy hit in the 1970s starring Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, better known these days for his TV programmes on birding and wildlife.

It achieved a cult following and was successful all over the world, famed for its hilarious sketches and quirky humour.

Twenty years later, Tim, Graeme and Bill reunited and went on their first ever live sell-out Goodies show in Australia and last year the show hit the UK, with a run at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Paramount Brighton Comedy Festival.

This show is now ready to hit the road in the eagerly awaited first UK tour.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT

Anarchic fun from British institution

WHERE AND WHEN?

At the Wycombe Swan at 7.30pm on Saturday March 24

HOW DO I GET TICKETS?

Tickets from £15.50 from 01494 512000

The Goodies Still Rule OK features Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden live on stage reminiscing over their near 30 year career, while fellow member Bill Oddie, mistakenly left behind in Australia, appears via all-new video footage.

Featuring TV clips, sketches, Union Jack waistcoats and quite possibly explosions, this is a chance to celebrate a unique British institution.

Anyone who grew up in the 70s will remember the Goodies fondly, but if not the show was a live-action version of a typical Warner Bros cartoon, replete with speeded-up footage, film trickery and violent slapstick. It was a joyous, unrestrained, lightly satirical festival of visual humour, with models, special effects, explosions, giant props and camera tricks combining to produce a variety of fast-paced wild antics rarely seen since the heyday of the silent movies.

There was also a musical element to the shows, Bill Oddie providing songs or instrumental routines to fit in with the capers. This led to a long-lasting spin-off success for the team, with successful album releases and high-ranking chart entries for songs such as Funky Gibbon.

Several such songs had first been performed by Oddie in the BBC radio sketch comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, in which all three Goodies had appeared, along with members of the Monty Python team.

The Goodies Still Rule OK is on for one night only in High Wycombe so be sure not to miss it.

Last Updated: 20 March 2007

THE EXPRESS – 23rd March

(Wackywales – Goodies Forum – 23rd Mar)

The Express, March 23, 2007 Friday

By: Tim Brooke-Taylor

Comedy actor and writer Tim, 66, lives in Berkshire with his wife Christine.

They have two sons, Ben and Edward, and three grandchildren

FAVOURITE FILM This is very difficult. I used to say Monsieur Hulot's Holiday but when I saw it for the eighth time I thought it was awful. For sheer unadulterated pleasure I look to the Indiana Jones films. There's hopefully a new one being made in the near future - I can't wait.

Also, if I'm allowed another, The Shawshank Redemption.

SPIRITUAL HOME Buxton in Derbyshire where I was born and bred.

It may be sentimental memory selection but Buxton after the war seemed to be a beautiful spa town where I could live an Enid Blyton life - riding bikes everywhere and chasing sticks down streams. Actually it was probably a bit more Just William-like. For those who haven't visited the Peak District I say "go now". I promise you won't regret it. Best to go in summer, though.

FAVOURITE HOBBY I'm a golfer. Why do I feel I have to apologise for that, I wonder? It's terrific exercise in a great environment. You can play it with all ages.

I'm not particularly good but, with the handicapping system, you can play against all standards. I've played with the best - Seve Ballesteros – and the worst, no names.

You can tell when people know nothing of golf when they talk about men playing in garishly coloured sweaters with diamondshaped patterns. Well, yes they did - in the Seventies.

You see I'm being defensive again.

SIMPLE PLEASURE It's not a simple pleasure but I love a live audience, whether I'm performing or in the audience itself. I'm also a typical, sad bloke: I'm a gadget man and love anything with a plug.

We first tried it out in Australia where there's more of an audience for us because it's been on television there non-stop for years. We've got a real following there so when we toured we got very enthusiastic audiences, there seems to be a real affection for the show. I think a lot of people had seen it as kids then carried on watching it when they grew up and saw the satirical side of it more. It's like a social history of the 70s.

After the success of the Australian tour, we were persuaded to do the Edinburgh Festival last year and we ended up doing a three-week run. Then we put the feelers out about doing a UK tour and the reaction was very positive.

Why don't we ever see The Goodies on the television anymore?

We're often asked why repeats aren't ever shown and we've never really got a cogent answer. The BBC didn't really release anything on video and it's another company who've put them out on DVD. There's another series out now by the way.

How did The Goodies first get together?

We were all at Cambridge University at the same time, we were all in Footlights, along with John Cleese and Eric Idle. It was an extraordinary time with all the Pythons about and people like Trevor Nunn and Richard Eyre producing Footlights plays. It was like a golden generation, we were all undergraduates together. I think we all did so well because we didn't take it terribly seriously."

What is the live show like?

I've worked a lot with Tim in the intervening years, and we just wanted to make the stage show fun. Having worked on radio together, we knew how to handle the loose format which is handy when the other person is trying to stitch you up all the time.

The show is scripted, we've got a structure, and we'll be answering questions about the show and showing clips. We'll tell some stories about the show and the clips, and also talk about Footlights and other TV and radio shows we've done. It makes me laugh that we're still getting away with it.

So where's Bill?

He did the Australian show with us, we all put that together, but his filming commitments meant he couldn't do this. He's kindly filmed his bits for the show so we'll be using video links for Bill which is good because we can turn him off when we get bored. We can't turn him off in real life unfortunately - we've been waiting for that technology for 30 years.

The Goodies Still Rule OK! is at the Southend Palace Theatre on Sunday, April 1 at 8pm. Tickets are £15.50, £18 and £19.50 on 01702 351135 or go to www.palacetheatresouthend.co.uk

Graeme Garden, 64, was born in Aberdeen. He read medicine at Cambridge, but after qualifying as a doctor went into entertainment. He was a writer/performer on BBC radio's I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and made his TV debut in 1967 with the sketch show Twice A Fortnight. He teamed up with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie for The Goodies which was first broadcast in 1970. He devised I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, the long-running Radio 4 show on which he is still a panellist, and is currently touring the UK in The Goodies Still Rule OK!. He is married and lives in Oxfordshire.

When were you happiest?

The carefree bliss of exploring rockpools on the Macduff shore as a child. But I never like saying, 'It doesn't get any better than this' in case it doesn't.

What is your greatest fear?

Losing my mental faculties and knowing it.

Which living person do you most admire?

In a recent poll, the most admired person in the world was George Bush. I'd choose pretty well anyone else.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Possibly indecisiveness.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Intolerance. Especially intolerance of indecisiveness.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

Asking a woman when it was due. It wasn't.

Aside from a property, what's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?

The family car. I paid more for my VW Passat than I did for my first house.

What is your most treasured possession?

Our house.

What would your super power be?

Indefatigability.

What makes you depressed?

Hearing about terrible things done for the sake of superstitious beliefs.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Playing the banjo.

Would you rather be clever and ugly, or thick and attractive?

I wouldn't mind trying thick and attractive.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Mark Gatiss.

What is your most unappealing habit?

Actually, I find all my habits appealing.

What is the worst thing anyone's ever said to you?

On a train once, a wild-eyed bloke said, 'Only an idiot would try to run this country. I am the next prime minister. Is this seat free?'

To whom would you most like to say sorry and why?

I can't think of a single person. Sorry.

Is it better to give or to receive?

Receiving is more cost-effective.

What, or who, is the greatest love of your life?

My children: Sally, John and Tom.

What does love feel like?

Physically and emotionally overwhelming, like the opposite of fear.

What was the best kiss of your life?

Startling.

Which living person do you most despise, and why?

Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. For no good reason, except he seems to despise everyone else for no good reason.

I'd make a few judicious cuts to enhance the action, but some sequences I would run in slow-motion.

How often do you have sex?

Often enough to have stopped keeping count.

What single thing would improve the quality of your life?

The improvement of everyone's quality of life.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Devising I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

I Don't Feel Like Dancin', by Scissor Sisters.

How would you like to be remembered?

Fondly and not too accurately.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

There's no point in worrying about things you can't change.

Tell us a joke.

It would be simpler to give you Barry Cryer's phone number.

Tell us a secret.

I worked on some of the original scripts for Mr Blobby.

HULL DAILY MAIL – 31st March

(Lisa Manekofsky – Goodies-l – 5th Apr)

GOODIES STILL RULE OK

Forget the psychopathic black pudding and the psychedelic chase sequences. Beneath the day-glo madness of The Goodies - as much a part of the 70s cultural scene as dungarees, joss sticks and beards - something far more profound was happening.

At least, that's what Tim Brooke-Taylor would like us to believe.

"It was never a children's programme - it was written for adults but younger people have a perception of all this silly running around," said Tim.

"The Goodies was a satirical show. The nearest parallel is the Simpsons, parents watch that with their kids without the children necessarily understanding the other levels built into it."

The programme - which ran from 1970 to 1982 - was almost a Warner Brothers cartoon made flesh.

And while viewers of a certain age will recall the stop-motion film trickery, the stunts and explosions, the trio of Tim, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden aimed to tackle deeper issues.

In the episode titled South Africa, apartheid - which had stripped black South Africans of their political rights - was re-imagined as "Apart Height" and saw Bill discriminated against for being too short.

And in Gender Education, The Goodies satirised the self-appointed TV censor Mary Whitehouse with the film, How to Make Babies By Doing Dirty Things.

Though these aspects have been largely forgotten in Britain - partly because the programmes have not been rebroadcast for 20 years - the anarchic spirit lives on through a new stage show, The Goodies Rule OK!

"You have to be about 40 to remember The Goodies the first time round," said Tim.

"But it seems to be one of those programmes that gets handed down and now people are coming along to the shows with their kids."

The new show features Tim and Graeme live on stage, with Bill appearing in a series of video clips because of other filming commitments.

"It means we can switch him off," said Tim.

Alongside the sketches and buffoonery, the trio share reminiscences about their time in the show.

The Goodies' story begins at Cambridge University in the early 60s, where the trio were members of the Footlights theatrical society.

With contemporaries including founding members of Monty Python John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, rebellion was in the air.

"Things were changing so quickly, with the music and atmosphere of the times," said Tim. "There was a sense that there were certain establishment things that you couldn't mock, but our feeling was, we will say what we think."

The trio appeared in the BBC sketch show Broaden Your Mind, before approaching producers with the idea of "an agency of three blokes, who do anything, any time".

And each week, The Goodies would peddle their three-seater bike towards a new adventure.

By the middle of the 70s, the trio had attracted worldwide attention, not least when a viewer laughed himself to death at their antics.

The show in question, Kung Fu Capers, saw Tim, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, using a set of bagpipes to fend off a psychopathic black pudding.

Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, was watching the programme at home. After 25 minutes of "continuous laughter" at Tim's demonstration of the ancient Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye", he died of a heart attack.

His widow later sent the trio a letter of appreciation.

"This very nice lady wrote to us to say thank you for making his last moments happy ones," said Tim. "It is a quite a difficult thing to react to. The press badgered me about how I felt, but the only answer was, 'It's the way I'd want to go.' We thought about doing a horror movie type thing, 'We dare you to watch The Goodies', but it was too soon after it happened, it would have been a bit sick."

After a decade of giant kittens and walking toothpaste, The Goodies' involvement with the BBC ended in 1981.

With the corporation's visual effects department working on the sci-fi comedy show The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, endless postponements for the new series saw the trio defect to the "other side".

"ITV came along with bags of gold, but had no idea where to put us," said Tim. "They did not want us on in the middle of the evening, as that was the prime time for the Coronation Street-type shows, so they stuck us at 5.30pm when no one was watching. Considering we used to get an audience of 12 million on the BBC, it was all a bit silly and we just drifted away.

"In many ways it is a regret that we did not go on. There would have been so many things to cover - Margaret Thatcher was just arriving on the scene."

So maybe it's apt that the Iron Lady makes an appearance in the new show, even if she has been filtered through the kaleidoscope of Goodies logic.

"I appear as a cross between Margaret Thatcher and Evita – basically Thatcher's personality with singing thrown in," said Tim. "It's not for kids and it might be a bit frightening for adults as well."

ONCE they were regulars on our television screens and they even had a hit record, but apart from occasional flashback reminders and specials little has really been seen of them for some time.

However, they're back, or at least two of them will be on stage and the other will star' in a slightly different way.

They'll be in a new stage show - The Goodies Still Rule OK! - which will be at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham this Friday (7.30pm).

Starring Tim Brooke Taylor and Graeme Garden the show is a celebration of one of the most popular TV comedy series of the 1970's. It received rave reviews at The Edinburgh Festival last summer and sold out two tours in Australia.

Due to filming commitments the third member of the trio, Bill Oddie, will beam his performance to the Alex via the wonders of digital technology.

For younger theatre-goers they'll be delighted to know Scooby Doo is coming to Birmingham's Hippodrome from Wednesday, April 18 to Sunday, April 22.

The Mystery Inc gang have taken to the road in their trusty Mystery Machine and are bringing the live experience of this cartoon classic to the stage in Scooby Doo! in Stagefright.

THEY wrote it and starred in it and their characters were comic exaggerations of their own personalities as they became household names during the Seventies and early Eighties.

And now, after years in the comedy wilderness as a trio, The Goodies (Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor) are back in fashion.

"I think the humour is pretty basic and universal, and to that extent timeless," offers Garden, one third of the cult comedy triumvirate.

Pausing for thought a moment, the Aberdeen-born comedian adds: "The sets, costumes and facial hair are now quaint period pieces, and funny in their own right."

After last year's Fringe show reunited Garden and Brooke-Taylor for the Goodies' first UK gigs in more than 25 years, they return to relive their heyday on TV by showing some classic clips from the archives and performing a series of brand- new sketches in a 90-minute show at the Festival Theatre on Sunday.

As was the case in the Capital last August, third Goodie Oddie (better known these days for his TV programmes on birding and wildlife) will appear in pre-recorded segments projected onto a giant screen.

"We're much better off without Bill anyway," laughs Garden. "I can't speak for Tim, but personally I'd rather he was off doing his bird-watching stuff than on the tour with us. He drives me up the wall that man."

As anyone who grew up in the 70s will remember fondly, The Goodies was a massive TV comedy hit, which achieved a cult following and was successful all over the world.

It was an unrestrained, satirical festival of visual humour, with special effects, explosions, gigantic props and camera tricks combining to produce a variety of antics rarely seen since the silent movie heyday. There was also a musical element to the shows, Oddie providing songs or instrumental routines to fit in with the capers.

This led to a long-lasting spin-off success for the team, with successful album releases and high-ranking chart entries for songs such as Funky Gibbon. Several such songs had first been performed by Oddie in the BBC radio sketch comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, in which all three Goodies had appeared, along with members of the Monty Python team.

Twenty years on, the trio reunited and went on their first ever live sell-out Goodies show in Australia and last year the show hit the UK, with the aforementioned run at the Edinburgh Fringe gaining rave reviews.

With the show having hit the road again in the eagerly awaited first UK tour, Garden laughs as he says, "The Goodies are more popular than ever - especially with ladies of a certain age.

"We seem to get more attention now than in the old days," smiles the 64-year-old Scot, a trained doctor who made his name pretending to be a madcap inventor.

"When we appeared on Top of the Pops we didn't have screaming groupies, and after the shows we had to make do with going out for a meal with Pan's People."

Laughing, he adds: "Now we get some nice ladies who come round for autographs at the stage door, but their minds are pure and chaste, as are ours."

He may be happy to reminisce about The Goodies' days as pop pin-ups, but Garden's son John is a proper pop star - the keyboard player for the US pop sensations Scissor Sisters.

"Yeah it's terrific," Garden beams with pride. "I loved watching them at the Brits. He's over in the States at the moment. I'm not too sure where he is - but he's having a great time and, of course, that's wonderful."

Back to Sunday's show, though, and Garden says the Edinburgh audience can expect the familiar Goodies' blend of slapstick, satire and surrealism.

He and Brooke-Taylor have kept their comedy edge sharply honed by appearing in classic, long-running Radio 4 comedy series I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, with Barry Cryer and Humphrey Lyttelton.

"The show is going to be very similar to the one we performed during the Fringe last year," he explains. "There will be a few special recordings we've done with Bill, though, as well as one or two new sketches that we've written.

"It will be fun to be back in Edinburgh where we always get a great reception. The shows last year went down really well with the crowds. We're looking forward to having a good time, and I hope the audience makes us laugh a lot."

After many years out of the public eye, Garden admits that he was pleasantly surprised how well The Goodies' were received after making their comeback Down Under a few years ago.

"We were slightly nervous about Australia, but thought, if the show's an utter failure, it's a long way away," he smiles.

"But it went well. We didn't expect to have the same reaction over here as Australia; there were 30-year-olds who were brought up with it in Australia, but people that age hadn't seen it in this country."

He needn't have worried. The Goodies went down a storm in this country too, proving that good comedy never goes out of fashion.

So now they are back in business, who do they poke fun at? Garden sniggers: "Bill's nature programmes."

Sometimes it takes the passing of time for a comedy's true worth to be appreciated. When The Goodies were winning huge audience shares back in the 70s, there was a tendency - as Graeme himself admits - for them to be deemed "uncool".

Coming in the wake of Monty Python, their blend of tomfoolery, muck-about humour and daft songs was wildly appreciated by millions, young and old, but the "uncool" image stuck; which meant that where other series earned endless repeats, the Goodie tapes remained undisturbed in the BBC vaults until relatively recently. Amazingly, they managed to offend Mary Whitehouse in those days (which admittedly wasn't too difficult). "So we thought, let's go a bit further," says Graeme. "So in the next show Bill appeared wearing a pair of pants with a carrot on the front."

Looking back, their slide from TV fashion was remarkable. After all, their seven series were huge hits all over the world and even won Silver at the Montreux Television Festival. The BBC itself let the trio move to ITV when they dawdled over the making of another series. "In those days we relied heavily on the wonderful BBC special effects team," says Graeme. "They had Doctor Who and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to look after as well as us, but couldn't make up their minds on where to use their resources. LWT waved their cheque book at us, and so we switched channels."

After a series there, the Goodies effectively came to a halt. The famous three-man bike, once powered by Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke Taylor along with Graeme, went into storage, along with the funky gibbon outfits and exploding trousers.

Not that it halted Graeme's career. He went back to radio, having devised the absolutely brilliant I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue panel game and keeping his considerable writing skills honed creating TV series including Doctor in the House, Surgical Spirit and The Astronauts. He has also fronted a number of medical programmes (he trained as a doctor), wrote novels and plays and pursued a successful career on stage.

In the intervening years he has also directed films and worked with John Cleese, writing training and information films for Video Arts. Graeme also now works for a spin-off company, The Production Tree, his latest video aiming at families of Alzheimer sufferers. And, if anything, the last few years have been even busier than his Goodie days: his penetrating, acerbic writing skills are in huge demand; and if you watched the highly acclaimed series Absolute Power, starring John Bird, well that was him as well.

So how did the Goodies reunion come about? "Blame it on the Australians," he says. "The BBC didn't start repeating our shows until fairly recently, but in Australia they've been on ever since, so there are whole generations of people who have been brought up with us.

"We were asked if we would do a 'reunion' tour over there and thought 'well it's far enough away if all goes wrong'. But it turned out really well – the audience was full of people of all ages. We were asked to go back, but Bill couldn't make it. So we did it without him - using cut out models and so on to fill in his parts.

"Then we were asked to take the show to the Edinburgh Festival, which was a bit closer to home - but that went well too. So here we are!"

The show is not simply a reenactment of the sketches - more a fond, illustrated tour through the show's history, showing some of the vintage clips on screen. "It would be impossible to do some of the slapstick stuff on stage," he says. "When we made a TV show about the Goodies a few years back, they dug out the bike; but before we could find out if we could still ride it we were told that it would be against Health & Safety!"

The trio also revive some of the sketches that started Graeme's writing career - going right back to his student days. I can vouch for the quality of those having cut my teeth writing for stage 25 years ago by hacking some of his old sketch and panto scripts for use by our local drama club, with Graeme showing great forbearance with my efforts.

The show's formula is going down well throughout the country, and it's no coincidence either that a DVD of some of the Goodies' old series is also selling quickly.

There's something hugely timeless about their humour. It's only one small side of Graeme - as his sharper, harder material in other programmes demonstrates, If you look back on his body of work over the last 35 years, from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again through to the recent Unbelievable Truth, it's plain that he has been one of the biggest influences in British comedy in that time.

But it's The Goodies that he will always be best remembered for: a show that will continue making people laugh for generations to come. "I'm extremely grateful to the Goodies," he says. "It provided us all with a really good platform for our futures."

* Graeme was scheduled to do an interview for BBC WM local radio Birmingham, but it wound up being on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire instead of Birmingham. Graeme appeared on Bob Brolly's afternoon show. As far as I can tell this is not available on Listen Again (there's a listing for Bob Brolly, but it's his Sunday morning show of Irish music).

* Graeme did an interview for John Foster of Radio Cleveland Friday; it'll be replaced later today by the new edition of the show but at the moment the right one is still available. From http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/local_radio/ click "Listen Again" and select the John Foster show. If the radio player shows the broadcast from 30 March you got the right one. Graeme's interview is just after the 2 hour mark.

Thanks also to reporter Mick Burgess, who wrote the article, for letting us know that 3 paragraphs were also used in Monday's Daily Express.

(Lisa Manekofsky – Goodies-l – 9th Apr)

3. THE GOODIES STILL RULE OK - FAN FEEDBACK

************************************************

Ian Cleveland - Hull

Excellent show at Hull, nearly word for word the Fringe show, but to me this just emphasised the skill and comic timing of The Goodies. I laughed just as loud at my favourite bits (the Cambridge Circus interviews and Making Babies By Doing Dirty Things) as I did the first time round. There was an excellent encore of Wild Thing which I don't recall from the Fringe. I could quite easily go again, but will probably go to the 'Clue' show.

The theatre was about 85% full, with all the centre seats gone. I think it was well received by all.

The Goodies Still Rule Ok was no. 3 in the Sunday Times top 5 comedy shows to see at the moment, and the Magic 1161 radio DJ said if you wanted a good night out The Goodies Still Rule Ok was a fantastic evening's entertainment. I'd agree with that, hopefully they will do it again next year, but I'm not sure what format they could use.

Euan Buchan - Edinburgh

It was brilliant, I loved it, reminded me of The Edinburgh Festival although there was something that wasn't in the Festival. I was wanting to get a Tour Poster for the show and luckily enough I managed to get a Tour Poster. I didn't even have to ask as they were selling them at the merchandise stand, by the end of the show they were all gone. I didn't buy the Programme as it was the same as at the Festival as I saw people browse through theirs. I was a bit disappointed that there were a few empty seats but there were a lot of people with young kids.

The show itself brought back memories from the show at The Edinburgh Festival; some bits I remember and some I forgot - it was a great show. After the show I went to the Stage Door which I located on Thursday afternoon to meet Tim & Graeme with a few other Goodies fans who brought their posters, books,pictures,t-shirts etc to be signed, some people brought really old books that I thought was impressive.

We waited about 10-15 mins then out came Tim & Graeme, and we seemed to make a line when they arrived. A little girl was first wearing a Goodies cap with her family & Tim said to her "love your t-shirt". She wanted a Goodies t-shirt to be signed, so Tim & Graeme started signing everyone's Goodies stuff. When it was my turn to talk to Graeme & Tim I had to tell them the correct spelling for my name as Tim said "A lot of people spell it Ewan". I got my Tour Poster signed & also a Tour Flyer as well. That is now framed and on my autograph wall, my Tour Poster is framed also. It was great to meet them again even though I had butterflies in my stomach but they were both really nice.

TC Raymond – Northampton

It made for something of a heart-warming sight. In the foyer they gathered, the kids, the teens, the twenty-and-thirty-somethings, the balding and greying, the couples (old and young alike), even a few pensioners and a handful in Goodie-inspired fancy dress (union jack waistcoats, Ecky Thump caps and neckerchieves, Bill's silent movie star long coats and black puddings held menacingly aloft), the manifold differences in age, appearance, outlook and opinion all cast aside for a precious couple of hours for the avowed purpose of paying tribute to two thirds of one of Britain's most-loved (and criminally neglected - by the BBC, at least) comedy teams. The Derngate wasn't quite full - not in terms of people, that is, but if you'll forgive me for lapsing into nauseating team-building argot for a moment, there was enough love in the room to fill ten Albert Halls - love for the Goodies, love for a certain brand of defiantly old-school British silliness, and love for the days when those of us who miss little things like slender waistlines and full heads of hair were younger, flares and sideburns were big (in every sense of the word) and the Goodies did indeed rule OK.

The stage was a minimalist affair - three chairs on the left, a large video screen draped in union jack flags central and a lectern on the right - and as soon as the lights dimmed and the famous opening sequence (and THAT theme song) played, ninety minutes of streamlined silliness was underway. Tim and Graeme (and a dummy Bill, the genuine article presumably stuck in Australia watching the migration of the emus) appeared on a three-man zimmer frame, their hands-free microphones making them look like members of Boyzone attempting a comeback circa 2037, Tim's union jack waistcoat and Graeme's professorial, sensibly-suited gravitas (disguising a razor-sharp comic mind and an undimmed flair for subversive naughtiness) reasssuringly present and correct. Although Oddie wasn't there in person, the irrepressible twitcher loomed large - indeed larger than life - over the proceedings, courtesy of some cleverly-realized taped segments played on the screen, his ego-piercing asides keeping his colleagues firmly in check.

For the hardcore Goodie fan, this show was nothing short of a dream come true. We saw Bill and Graeme's Footlights audition pieces (Graeme's "pet's corner" routine remains a masterclass in how to handle props convincingly), a rare clip of the pre-Goodies sketch show At Last the 1948 Show with Bill as a gloomy hospital patient and Tim as a malfunctioning robot visitor, a re-enacted Broaden Your Mind sketch (the irony of two pensionable comedians performing as a pair of crusty professors wasn't lost on anyone present - including the performers), a memorable bit of surrealist adventure spoofing from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, a clever skit on censorship problems with a puppet Bill and some heavily-bleeped Julie Andrews songs, plenty of clips that have definitely stood the test of time (the Movies, Kitten Kong, Scoutrageous, Bunfight At the OK Tea Rooms, 'Timita', Saturday Night Grease and Kung Fu Kapers were all liberally sampled) and a rousing rendition of 'Wild Thing', with Graeme powerhousing his way through a series of Pete Townshend moves with a ukelele and Tim donning a Jimmy Savile wig and gold lame jacket, whilst Bill lapsed into psychedelic (possibly Sherbet-fuelled) rocked-out madness behind them. It was a blast, and not just from the past. Comedians who are able to cut across the age barriers as effortlessly as Tim and Graeme are decidedly thin on the ground, and if this performance was anything to go by, there's life in the Goodies yet. If only someone would persuade the BBC of that. The only slight disappointment of the whole evening was the absence of Tim's trademark shiny shoes, but after this night of sublime silliness, I could forgive him anything.

(Ego-driven bit) I got to meet Tim and Graeme by the stage door, and Tim thanked me for being "very enthusiastic" whilst Graeme congratulated me on my sideburns, specially grown for tonight's performance. They signed books, programmes, DVDs, even a black pudding (still in the cellophane, of course!) and posed for photos and camera-phones. I asked whether a third DVD of BBC episodes was in the pipeline, and Tim told me that Network had been given a hard time by the BBC, who loudly insisted that the episodes were still "premium product" - despite another "premium product" being given away free with the Daily Mirror! 'Goodies Rule OK' seems doomed to a long spell in copyright hell due to the Beatles footage (and possibly Andy Pandy, Bill and Ben, the Wombles and the various music clips used during this most fondly-remembered of episodes), and it's all a bit bleak at the moment, but that could change...and there's an I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue tour to look forward to in September, so it's not all bad news!

Helen – Buxton, Southend, Birmingham & Oxford

Having just managed to catch the final show in Edinburgh last year, when the tour was announced I was determined to see a couple of the shows. Somehow I was persuaded to see four (ok, I didn't take much persuading!).

So it was that early one morning I set out with fellow fans Clair and Kate for the tropical climes of Buxton. We'd thought it would be fun to see the show in Tim's home town and I was pleased to see that it hadn't changed since my grandad took me on day trips! The show itself was as good as I had remembered from Edinburgh and I particularly appreciated the additions of the "Teddy and Freddy" sketch and the much talked about rendition of "Wild Thing".

Less than a week later and we were on the road again, this time to Southend. The audience here were really enthusiastic and it was good to have other people cheering and laughing as loudly as we were. The most bizarre moment of the whole experience has to be the bloke who, after the show, asked "Graeme, will you sign my banana?"!!

The following Friday and we were in Birmingham. Because it was the Bank Holiday weekend there were a lot of families at the show, and it was great to see so many kids, some of them very young, dragging their parents along. The two little girls who were sitting behind us during the show were laughing at everything and seemed to know all the clips as well as we did. I think it was here that one kid was singing along with the "Fairy Puff Advert", which made us giggle.

Our final show was Oxford, exactly three weeks after we had first seen it in Buxton. I was pleased to see that my newly adopted home city had the good taste to cause the theatre to sell out! It was great to see the show for a final time with such an enthusiastic audience, some of whom seemed to be anticipating the jokes more than we did. Graeme and Tim seemed to be enjoying performing the show more than I'd seen before too.

I've really loved seeing the show so many times. I've grown to appreciate and love the clips and stories, and found something new in them each time. I could never tire of watching Graeme's "Pet's Corner" or the "Teddy and Freddy" sketch.

Huge thanks to Graeme and Tim for such a fantastically great show (and for putting up with us appearing on the front row time and again. I've just got one more thing to add - when's the next tour??

Alison Bean – Croydon & Dartford

I saw The Goodies Still Rule OK in Croydon and Dartford and thoroughly enjoyed myself on both occasions. The show was fast-paced, slick and crammed with gags. There were a number of additions to the show I saw last year in Brighton, including an appearance from Broaden Your Mind characters Teddy and Freddy and a brilliant gag in which virtual Bill, with help from Graeme, handed Tim a piece of paper. It was also impressive to see Tim and Graeme respond to (or cope admirably with) the audience at both performances.

Sadly after two years of performances the Goodies tour is over, but if this show is any indication the upcoming I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue live gigs will be brilliant.

Lisa Manekofsky – Croydon, Dartford & Oxford

Two years ago Tim, Graeme, and Bill accepted an invitation from the Big Laugh Comedy Festival of Sydney, Australia to perform the first ever live Goodies show. The initial plan was for six performances, spread between Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Brisbane during March 2005. When these quickly sold out the tour was expanded to thirteen shows. Little did they know what was to come. By the end of April 2007 the Goodies live show had been performed over 80 times in more than 40 cities in Australia and the UK. (For a complete list of the tour dates visit the club FAQ at http://www.goodiesruleok.com/faq.php?topic=5#faq31 ).

The show has been adapted continuously since those first dates in Sydney. The first major change was to accommodate the fact that Bill was only available to appear live during the initial Australian run; the three Goodies figured out ways to cleverly integrate him via pre-recorded segments and other means starting with their second trip to Australia. Further changes were made when the show was brought to audiences in the UK in 2006 for a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a date at the Paramount Brighton Comedy Festival.

I was fortunate enough to attend the show in both Australia and Edinburgh. Like many other fans, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see it again as Tim, Graeme, and virtual Bill hit the road this past month as part of a 22 city UK tour. My expectation was that the latest incarnation basically would be the Edinburgh version with the addition of a song at the end – due to strict time limits, the encore performance of "Wild Thing" had been cut after the initial show at the Fringe Festival. Therefore, I had a pleasant surprise awaiting me in Croydon when I saw my first show of the just-concluded National Tour.

To my delight, I saw that Tim & Graeme had further refined the version I'd seen last summer. These experienced comedy professionals had made little changes and tweaks throughout the 90 minute performance, resulting in an even tighter show. I was hard-pressed to recall what been dropped, but easily noticed new jokes and bits of business interspersed throughout the evening. In addition, two significant items had been added. As mentioned in Graeme's tour diaries, he & Tim finally had a chance to add a Teddy & Freddy sketch (an idea which had been considered for earlier versions of the Goodies live show). Tim and Graeme had enjoyed playing the characters in "Broaden Your Mind" (as evidenced by a version of the two elderly gentlemen being written into "The Goodies" episode "The End", in which they have a discussion about umbrellas). The sketch was hilarious and a huge success with the audience. As I'd hoped, "Wild Thing" was indeed returned to the show, making for a fun and rousing end to the evening.

Here are some personal recollections and highlights from the three shows I attended.

Croydon:

While the show wasn't sold out, the theater was very full. A large group of people arrived about 10-15 minutes into the show and started filing into the second row as Graeme was in the middle of telling a story. He seamlessly added a line about the late arrivals in row B, which earned him an appreciative laugh from the audience.

At one point in the show the guys mentioned Australia. There was a large and enthusiastic cheer from a group towards the back of the theater, which got a big smile from Tim & Graeme.

Later in the show Graeme used an Australian accent which lead to a laugh from someone in the audience; this seemed to surprise Tim & Graeme (as it isn't a spot where they usually get a laugh). Tim said someone along the lines of "I thought his accent was good". The audience was quite amused at the exchange.

Dartford:

Another packed theater and fantastic audience; Tim & Graeme really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I thought Tim gave a particularly energetic performance during "Wild Thing" (though I had only one other performance with which to compare it).

During the Croydon show two nights earlier Graeme had mentioned that Alex Mitchell Jr., son of the man who died laughing while watching "Kung Fu Kapers", was supposed to be in the audience in Dartford. I think they were a bit nervous at the prospect of telling the story in front of him. But they didn't modify it and it went over very well, as usual.

There was a good-sized crowd waiting by the stage door, perhaps about 25 people. While waiting for a chance to say hello to Tim & Graeme someone came over and introduced herself to me and GROK founder Alison Bean – it was club member bondgirl and her husband, who'd flown over from Australia only a few days before (they'd also attended the Croydon show, although they hadn't made it to the stage door that evening). It was fantastic to meet them!

Oxford:

The show was sold out; the audience was absolutely *fantastic*. Everything got big laughs from the very start of the performance.

At one point in the show Tim was talking about how he, Graeme & Bill all met; when he mentioned the Cambridge Footlights there was a soft "boo" from someone towards the back of the theater - obviously some Oxford/Cambridge rivalry. ;) If Tim heard it he didn't give any indication.

A lot of people in the audience obviously know of "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again". They cheered when the radio show was mentioned during the "Goodies history" segment of the show. During the intro to the ISIRTA sketch Tim mentions that he'd played a character called Lady Constance de Coverlet; as soon as he said the name, and before he could explain about the character's popularity during ISIRTA recordings, there was a HUGE cheer from the Oxford audience. Tim was obviously surprised and pleased at the reaction; I saw that Graeme had a big smile as well.

For the ISIRTA reenactment they bring out a microphone stand upon which is attached two metal horns, each with a rubber bulb. After Graeme put the stand down and started to walk away one of the rubber bulbs fell off, bounced, and landed on the stage near him; he (and the audience) started laughing. Tim made a joke along the lines of "talk about upstaging". Graeme picked up the bulb, took two steps over to the stand and honked the still complete horn while pretending to blow the broken one; Tim then couldn't resist honking the good one as well. It was a silly and fun moment.

Midway through the "Wild Thing" performance Tim goes off stage, returning shortly wearing a rocker wig and glittery gold jacket. When he emerged in that get-up there was a huge cheer from the audience. You could see the look of joy on both Tim & Graeme's faces at the reactions they were getting all evening.

There was a big crowd waiting by the stage door afterwards; as always, Tim & Graeme spent a lot of time chatting with fans, signing autographs, and posing for pictures. It was a great evening for me as well because I got to meet club members Clair, Kate, & Helen!

The Goodies Still Rule OK! The title of this mini-epic is a play on words from one of this comedy trio's biggest-selling albums back when they were famous.

Superb: Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor

And there's the rub. Like Nottingham Forest, they're not famous any more.

But unlike Forest, only around 300 people turned up for this superlative stage show of reminiscing, clips and sketches from these comedy greats.

OK, so scruffy little Bill wasn't actually there. But Graeme and Tim were - and they were superb.

And while two mature, greying men standing on stage, one tinkering with a kazoo and the other playing the swanee whistle, might not be everyone's idea of entertainment, it appealed to the meagre crowd.

We were treated to some clips from their heyday, talk of what happened behind the scenes, up-to-date jokes and some more risqué "hung like mice, we were," recalled Graeme, on the results of one daring stunt.

And there were the naughty bits censored by Australian TV, the clips that Mary Whitehouse balked at, and Bill (or cyber-Bill) enjoying his large part via the big screen on stage.

The last thing you expect from the notoriously silly Goodies is an education. But the most engaging part of their touring show is the history lesson it gives. Here are recollections of the sketch shows they made in the 1960s with John Cleese, Marty Feldman and, er, Germaine Greer - and of the comedy album produced with George Martin and released in the same week as With the Beatles. And here are Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor huddled by a vintage radio mic, tooting into a swanee whistle and kazoo - an image that touchingly represents their lifetime's contribution to the nation's good cheer.

Yes, we might have wished for an evening more attuned to the Goodies' anarchic spirit - and we might have got one, if Bill Oddie hadn't dropped out. (Or "migrated south for the winter," as Brooke-Taylor has it.) Oddie contributes by video, as his cohorts tell the tale of the hit 1970s programme in a slightly clunky, FAQ format. Sometimes it's more affable chat than comedy. And when it's comedy, Brooke-Taylor and Garden's performances can be limited - though the latter pitches in a fine slapstick routine about a sabre-toothed mongoose in a cardboard box.

Essentially, the gig is an extended advert for the TV show - or a protest against its 30-year neglect. And it works. Footage of Brooke-Taylor's Evita rip-off Don't Cry for Me, Marge and Tina is as daft as the Mary Whitehouse-baiting film How to Make Babies By Doing Dirty Things is gloriously impertinent. And the final, Hollywood-themed clip, in which the trio simultaneously shoot a western, a Biblical epic and a silent comedy, is dizzying in its formal invention. Garden and Brooke-Taylor are good enough as Goodies, but it's the clips that provide the yum yum.

Oxford Times Website, April 19, 2007

(Lisa Manekofsky – 21st Apr)

The Goodies Still Rule OK!

By Chris Gray

Having recently been less than totally impressed by performances from two of the current giants of comedy, Russell Brand and Ricky Gervaise, I welcomed the chance on Monday to spend 90 minutes in the company of a pair of old-time pranksters who really know their craft.

Graeme Garden (left) and Tim Brooke-Taylor brought their well-planned show, The Goodies Still Rule OK! - a hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe - to a packed Playhouse. With contributions on film from Bill Oddie, they provided a warmly nostalgic look back on their long-running BBC comedy series. Inevitably linked, since it ran through the whole of the 1970s, with the 'decade that taste forgot', the programme turns out - to judge from the clips we saw - to have worn very well. Always inventive, and much edgier than it seemed at the time (all those cuddly toys!), the show clearly deserves to be seen again. You can understand why its stars are miffed by the Beeb's refusal to give it a rerun.

But the evening reminded us, too, of Garden, Brooke-Taylor and Oddie's life before The Goodies. There were amusing insights into the world of the Cambridge Footlights where they cut their comic teeth. The success of the revue Cambridge Circus took them to the West End and later into radio in I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. To judge from the spontaneous applause that greeted the mere mention of this show, there were many of us present on Monday who had made a weekly date with the Home Service 40 and more years ago . . .

11:02am Thursday 19th April 2007

5. THE MAN IN THE BLOG

*************************

Many thanks to Graeme Garden for kindly providing the following "Officially Amazing" tour diary / blog at the suggestion of the Saucy Gibbon website (http://www.the-goodies.co.uk) to share with the members of both fan clubs.

Wednesday 21st March

The tour has been going very nicely so far. Torquay was a disappointingly small turnout, but it was a big theatre in an out-of-season holiday town, and the response was nonetheless warm. We've had much fuller audiences at the other gigs, and apart from a few minor technical hitches (one night Tim's microphone made noises like a rocket attack and he had to rely on vocal power alone for a while) the shows have gone well and been very happily received.

Tim and I are especially pleased, and relieved, that Teddy and Freddy seem to be amusing the audiences in a very gratifying way. We always enjoyed playing the characters, and it's great fun to be doing them again.

Frank and Matt have been looking after us and running the shows with their customary cheerful efficiency and are, as always, a pleasure to be with.

All the best to the members and a big thank you to all those who are turning out to support us. We're looking forward to the rest of the tour and will try to keep you up to date with news on the road.

Goody wishes to one and all

Graeme

Tuesday 27th March

The show DVD had been playing up a little as if it had a scratch, so on Tuesday 20th I was recording for a Radio show on Scottish humour at the studio where we had shot Bill's links and edited the show disc. So while I was there I got a couple of fresh DVDs burned from the master, and then found Matt had bought a new DVD player too, so fingers crossed all should now be OK.

On Thursday 22nd we travelled to Lincoln through snow and sleet, held up on the last lap by an overturned lorry at a roundabout.

The discs were fine but we were plagued by sound problems with the mikes – Tim had to rely on his theatrical vocal projection for one section! There was a reasonable crowd for a Thursday, and very appreciative, even when I forgot to do the Teddy and Freddy sketch, our two old professors from Broaden Your Mind. I got to the cue but carried on with my next bit – I saw Tim get to his feet but thought, silly old fool, he's trying to come in at the wrong place! Then at the end of my bit he reminded me, so I went back and introduced the T&F characters, and the audience seemed amused at me talking about these absent-minded old twits!

On Friday we had lunch with my sister and husband who live near Lincoln, and after a quick look round Lincoln Cathedral we played to an almost full house that evening.

On Saturday we had a good house at High Wycombe, and as always a nice bunch of folk at the Stage Door after.

Lisa told us about someone who'd got in touch to say that, in 1977, her mother went into labour whilst watching the Goodies ("Alternative Roots") and refused to go to the hospital until the episode had finished, resulting in the baby almost being born in the ambulance. All turned out well and on Sunday in Nottingham she was in the audience, with the baby and the baby's husband!

It was great to see Andrew Pixley and his wife Julie after the show, when he gave us each a copy of SFX magazine with his Goodies piece in it.

Emails have been arriving from my son John who is in New York with Scissor Sisters for Elton John's big 60th birthday party and concert. He's having a whale of a time!

Monday, and a beautiful drive through the Derbyshire Dales brought us to Tim's home town of Buxton and its fine Opera House. A large and enthusiastic audience made us feel very welcome. We heard some familiar laughs in the auditorium and then saw some familiar faces at the Stage Door afterwards!

A couple of days off now before we head for Tunbridge Wells…

Friday 30th March

A cold wet day in Tunbridge Wells, but a very comfortable hotel to relax in before the show. Not a full house but another appreciative audience. The show went pretty smoothly after our days off. In Pets' Corner the Sahara Rabbit developed a bit of attitude and grabbed my shoulder with his little paws and refused to be thrown away. He dropped to the floor just behind me. I must have words.

At one point I accidentally hit my microphone while Tim was talking and it made a bang like a gunshot, which had him hiding behind the lectern. A nice group of supporters at the stage door included Carrie (the Minx) and her friend Rosemarie. Hugs and autographs were duly supplied.

Saturday: A very jolly audience at Basingstoke, and they kept up their enthusiasm right to the end! Lots of books and records to be signed at the Stage Door afterwards. The Guardian printed my Q&A with a very peculiar choice of photo! We later heard that the Guardian critic was in the audience.

Sunday in Southend-on-Sea, and despite an apparent lack of any posters outside the theatre or anywhere else, we had a very good sized and appreciative audience. We knew Clair, Kate and Helen were in again when one or two loud laughs scared the rest of the audience. Also at one point puppet Bill took on a life of his own and lunged at Tim and terrified him! We met Tim's agent after the show in the bar, where we signed more autographs than anywhere else so far I think. Among the folk we met after the show was Olga who had been a faithful fan way back in the ISIRTA radio days and who was there with her daughter.

We spent the night in a good old-fashioned boarding house by the sea. I didn't expect much sleep after a car in the car-park played an amazing medley of alarm tones, and kept going off at regular intervals until midnight. Luckily it then shut up. Next morning we had a proper fry-up breakfast shoulder to shoulder with holidaymakers in the tiny dining room then hit the road. Two days off, then Hull beckons.

Cheers

Graeme

Tuesday 10th April

Hard to believe we're almost on the last lap, although it also feels as if we've been on the road forever!

Weds April 3rd in Hull.

The show went well with a good sized crowd. The audience was very appreciative though discriminating as, to start with, they didn't just laugh at everything and anything, but by the end were really into it all and cheering away for the finale.

A fair number waiting at the stage door, including a slightly scary ageing punk who kept getting things signed for his 3 yr-old niece, who liked Bill, and his Mum who liked Ken Dodd.

Thursday and it must be Bradford.

The show tonight went very well with a reasonable number in a big hall. There seemed to be a few members from the website at the stage door after, including Jess and her lovely Mum.

Tim and I went for an Indian meal with an old mate from Cambridge Footlights days which was fun.

Friday and another jolly show in Birmingham.

The Stage Door crowd included 'Edna' and once again Clair, Kate and Helen, who presented us with Easter Eggs. Mine was inscribed 'Ungelievagle G nius' as the 'e' had dropped off.

Saw an article in the Scotsman in which I seemed to laugh a lot while being horrible about Bill! Don't believe all you read in the papers!

Saturday April 7th. Tim and I have very fond memories of the Civic Theatre

Darlington where we opened 'The Unvarnished Truth' nearly 30 years ago. It was a pleasure to play there again.

We went for a meal with Frank and Matt after the show, so while they packed the bus we had time for a long chat with the Giddies who had turned up.

As I was checking out of the hotel in Darlington on Sunday morning, a middle-aged couple got into the lift. As it went down the chap smiled primly to me and said, rather quickly:

"Are you farting all this morning?"

A bit taken aback I said "Pardon?"

"Are you farting all this morning?"

"What?!"

He slowed down and spoke more clearly:

" 'Ave you far to go this morning?"

So that was a relief!

Easter Sunday, Edinburgh. We'd always had doubts about doing Edinburgh, a huge venue so soon after doing a month at the Fringe. And sure enough the audience was sparse and most of the folks were scattered around the back of the stalls and balcony. It was hard work, but there were enough enthusiastic souls to keep the energy going. It was hard work for us, but we could tell the audience were determined to enjoy themselves, and it paid off in the end. Panties and roses were thrown on stage at the final bow!

Afterwards we met a couple of Australian lasses who were friends of Karen in Rockhampton, who's coming over for the Croydon show. They phoned her up in Oz and she spoke to us and the Giddies who were there. She was so excited none of us understood a word of what she said, plus it was very early morning for her! I believe she has posted her account of it!

Time off now, of a sort - I have to record a bit for Holby and we have a meeting for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, then back on the boards at Croydon.

Wednesday 18th April

Tuesday April 10th: Holby was fun, just the one scene and only time for a quick hello to Ade Edmondson.

Wednesday and a meeting with Jon Naismith, Tim and Barry to talk about new Clue ideas, and plans for the Clue Stage Tour in September.

Thursday's Croydon show in the presence of President Lisa of GROK! During my wasp story a whole row of latecomers filed in, so I was able to say "As we look deep into the bush, we see a family of Bellamies. moving into row B!"

After the show Peter Logan, one of our original Special Effects team came round with his family to say hello. He lent us some of his priceless photos of work on location, some of which Tim is going to scan for the website.

On Friday Andrew Kay our Producer turned up from Australia en route to Zurich via Derby! It was nice to see him, and have a jolly chat. Jess and Peej were at the show and Liv from Australia was with them, with her mum, and brother Tim. All the ladies got hugs.

The local Fire Service was on an exercise outside the Assembly Rooms and the firemen wanted to pose for a photo with us. Jess did the honours with the camera but [FLASH!]

"Oh no," said Jess, "the reflective strip on your helmets has flared the picture."

So the firemen took their helmets off.

[FLASH!]

"Oh no," said Jess, "the reflective strip on your jackets has flared the picture."

So the firemen took their jackets off.

[FLASH!]

"Oh no," said Jess, "the reflective strip on your trousers has flared the picture."

But the firemen had all run away.

Saturday and a cheerful audience in Dartford. Afterwards we met up at last with Karen from Rockhampton who we had spoken to on the phone from Edinburgh. She and her husband had also been at the Croydon show, straight off the plane, so too tired to say hello after! Hugs photos etc etc.

A fantastic sunny Sunday in Eastbourne, but not a great show in the evening. The huge 1800 seat Congress Theatre was rather thinly populated, which took some of the zing out of the atmosphere. Tim had a couple of friends in the audience; it's a shame he couldn't have drummed up about a thousand more. As usual a nice bunch of fans at the stage door afterwards cheered us up, and a nice chap called Adrian apologised on behalf of Eastbourne for the poor turnout.

Monday April 16th in Oxford - the Sold Out signs were out for the first time! It's a 600-seater, but they told us they could have sold out another night as well. The show went really well, probably the best of the tour, which was nice as my wife Emma and several friends were in the audience! A big crowd at the stage door afterwards, and we said goodbye to Lisa who is off back to the States soon.

Only one more show left, tomorrow at Northampton. After that I'll be back to sum up the experience. Thanks for reading.

Thursday 26th April

TOUR DIARY – FINAL ENTRY.

Wednesday April 18th and the final gig in Northampton. Again a good audience but rather dwarfed by the big booming auditorium. However we were as always delighted to see the fans who came to the Stage Door for a chat and a signature. Home on Thursday, and the tour was over. Fond farewells to Frank and Matt, who had done a brilliant job looking after us and the show. We certainly hope to work with them again some day, and we will keep in touch. I just hope they found their way back without my Satnav, that had done sterling work throughout the trip. (In fact I've heard from Frank, who is now off on a tour down under with Topol doing "Fiddler on the Roof".)

Since then I've been busy catching up with paperwork and domestic business, recording The Unbelievable Truth, while Timbo has whisked away to Portugal to play golf in the rain. Next week we start the new Clue season, so life returns to what passes for normal.

The tour was tiring but great fun. We had splendidly responsive audiences wherever we went, and it was nice to have the chance to meet and greet – and thank – the many fans who came to see us personally. It was also good to be able to put faces to some of the names we'd seen on the websites!

Particular mention must be made of Seema Bakewell who went into labour in 1977 laughing at 'Alternative Roots' and refused to leave home until the programme finished; she came to the Nottingham show with her baby Ayesha and the baby's husband.

And a special thank you to those who travelled around the world to be with us: Karen and her husband from Rockhampton, Liv from Adelaide and her Mum and brother Tim, and of course not forgetting President Lisa from the USA. I'm sure there are many other names I should have mentioned, but thanks to you all, and we really appreciate your support and enthusiasm.

Here's to the next time!

6. GOODIES TOUR WORD FINDER

********************************

(by Brett Allender)

This puzzle contains the various places in the UK and Australia where the Goodies have performed their live shows over the past two years, plus a few additional related words.

Try to find all the listed words in the puzzle. Words may be found horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Upon completion, delete the unused Qs, Xs and Js and the remaining 10 unused letters can be rearranged to form the one remaining tour venue that isn't on the main word list – cryptic clue: "To arrive in the world facing Mecca"